=Sitting Room, Theed Royal Palace=
Ricco Bene, who had touched down in a Theed suburb hardy half an hour previously, was right on schedule, as always. He'd beaten the transport shuttle and intercepted their emissary just in time. A smug smile spread across his face while he waited in an empty lounge in the Theed palace.
He kicked up his feet onto a table, his heavy boots making a loud thud. Now it was time for him to wait and see how things would unfold. Patience, Darth Tyranus had always said, stroking his white beard placidly.
And Ricco Bene was practicing just that. Patience. All was going to plan, so far. No one had asked him any questions at the spaceport. He'd found the queen's handmaiden his master had indicated with no trouble, and she'd been surprisingly compliant. The weak-minded were so easy to manipulate through the Force, he thought.
Upon hearing the echoing of footsteps approaching, he'd stood and flattened himself against a wall to listen to who was coming. When they had passed beyond the archway, he saw them: not the Naboo Royal Guard, but the younglings who'd come with the Jedi he'd been sent to spy on.
His master was a smart man, training Bene to always plan not one, but two steps ahead if he could. Those younglings had a part to play in his master's plan. The six younglings had whispered among themselves as they passed right by him without noticing, led by the very handmaiden he'd mind-tricked. His master had told him exactly what he needed to do, but Bene had learned from his master, and had planned ahead to create himself a little helper, willing or unwilling.
Ricco Bene flopped down onto the sofa again. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back, letting his yellow eyes slide shut as he basked in a beam of sunlight from a tall window. It wouldn't be long until the fun began.
